Firebase

Firebase follows a group of American soldiers during the Vietnam War who come face to face with a mysterious supernatural foe known as the "River God". The River God it turns out was a villager who lost his wife and transformed into a skeletal entity with the abilities of invisibility and invincibility, hunting down the enemy soldiers to make them feel his pain.

As a concept Firebase is quite interesting, it reminded me a lot of the original Predator film with a group of soldiers in the jungle under attack from an invisible and seemingly invincible enemy. Unfortunately this short is little more than just that, a concept. There was a plan to turn Firebase into a feature length film via crowd funding but unfortunately it was cancelled soon after funding began. Sadly all we are left with is this interesting concept for a film that will likely never be made.

The idea and production values are ace, but the execution has too much exposition and wonky pacing. Too many things are repeated, too much monologing, and the editing could be considerable tighter.

This is now the third Oats Studios short I've watched and I'm suitably impressed. Well made, great production values, well cast and they look fantastic.

Here we have a third seemingly Omnipotent force appearing during the Vietnam War and the story is told perfectly.

Well, that is until it suddenly ends incomplete on a cliff hanger! That's the trouble with these shorts, they are like a single scene ripped from a grand scale epic movie.

The scene is great, but it's just a scene all the same.

Firebase certainly has oceans of entertainment value but is yet another Oats Studios story that will never be fully told.

The Good:

Looks great

Awesome story/Entity

Documentary footage fits nicely

The Bad:

Incomplete with huge cliff hanger ending

FIREBASE is Director Neill Blomkamp's astonishing vision of the Vietnam war, where the inexplicable "River God" turns the jungle conflict into something even more catastrophic! Can the army possibly stop this paranormal abomination?

Part APOCALYPSE NOW, all supernatural horror, this short film is a unique, mini masterpiece of macabre storytelling. Fabulous CGI and believable humans add to the fright factor. The ending leaves one wanting more...

Could they please just make this into a longer movie!? :) A long time since I've really enjoyed myself with a new story, or concept. The River King was amazing, a couple of things here and there that could be improved upon, just make this a motion picture already!